Suicide Squad (2016) wasn’t exactly what director David Ayer intended. Studio interference reshaped the film to have a more “fun” tone after audiences pushed back against Batman v Superman’s brooding vibe. But what came after might be even more frustrating for fans who were hoping for a more grounded sequel.
Before James Gunn swooped in with his 2021 The Suicide Squad, Warrior and The Accountant director Gavin O’Connor had his own vision for Suicide Squad 2, and now, he’s finally talking about what happened behind the scenes.
In a candid conversation with Collider, O’Connor opened up about how far he’d gotten into the script before the rug was pulled out from under him.
“It’s another example of the dysfunction of our industry,” he said. “I had a very specific take. They wanted to do it. I think I was probably three-quarters of the way into the script when they brought in a new regime and all the DC people I was working with were gone.
“I was writing on the lot, I got a little bungalow there; my writing partner and I would just meet there and write every day.”
That’s when the new DC brass, assumed to be Walter Hamada, came knocking.
“There was a knock on the door, and it was the new DC president. He said, ‘So where are you with the script?’ I said ‘It’s almost done,’ and he said ‘Can I read it?’ And I said, ‘Well, you can read it when it’s finished.’
“A couple of weeks later, I gave it to him, and he said ‘Can you make it a comedy?’ And I said, ‘That’s not what I wrote, and that’s not the agreement I have with the studio.’ He wanted me to make it into a comedy, and I was like, all right, I guess I won’t be working here.”
That was the end of that.
O’Connor’s story would have placed Will Smith’s Deadshot front and center, focusing on a personal arc. “It was really a father-daughter story with Deadshot and his daughter.”
Despite its harsh reviews, Ayer’s Suicide Squad pulled in a massive $749.2 million at the global box office. Warner Bros. wasn’t going to abandon the IP, but when Gunn’s The Suicide Squad launched during the height of the pandemic, it only managed $169 million worldwide, though it earned far more critical love.
Gunn has since spun off characters like Waller into other projects and launched Creature Commandos to expand the stranger corners of the DCU. But for now, that original version of Suicide Squad 2, with its gritty, emotional, and free of punchline mandates is just another casualty of studio shakeups.
It’s just yet another “what could have been” moment in DC’s chaotic cinematic timeline.
